Spencer Smith awarded HFSP Grant

Spencer Smith, along with fellow principal investigators Benjamin Judketwitz and Ruben Portugues, was awarded a Human Frontier Science Program Grant. Their aim is to build a system to image neural activity in freely swimming zebrafish. Previous attempts to image neural activity in freely moving animals were invasive and involved tethering the animals with electrical wires and/or optical fibers. Through the use of Smith lab’s wide field-of-view imaging systems and novel fast-tracking instrumentation, the researchers plan to image neural activity non-invasively while the fish swims around freely.

The award total is $900,000 over three years, to be divided between the three labs.